Frequent Stress Headaches

I was wondering if your a smoker(cigarettes) My 16 year old was suffering from headaches constantly at home for several months (living with her mother) and was given several different meds but nothing seemed to work. She went through cat scans and spinal taps which all came up negative. One day when she was staying by my house she realized that she never suffered from any headaches there. What we found to be causing her headaches was her mother smoking in the house. My home is smoke free. I confronted her mother and she stopped smoking inside the house and my daughters headaches subsided.

I positively despise cigarettes. Don't even drink anymore. I thought I might have gotten caffeine headaches, but after not drinking any for 2 weeks, and the headaches still prevailed, I eliminated that theory.

My head was hurting so bad last night that I broke down into tears, feeling like a victim and not knowing what to do with myself. So my wife took me to the ER and they pumped new drugs into my veins (Depakote, dextramethasone), and a clever narcotic that totally knocked out my headache, even until 4 pm so far today. The good night's sleep helped too.

Haha, lol!
I pretty much am and have gone through the same thing you are going through. Ever since I was 12, my mom, doctors, and I have diagnosed myself with migraine headaches. It seems to me that it is definitely migraines. I have 2 kids, the screaming always makes them start. Pills and other bs "medicine", otc or perscription, are BAD!! Doing extensive research on my ailment, has brought to my attention that you can't and should not swallow pills everyday because you have pain in your head. The thing is (at least for me), migraines are very hard to deal with. They stop you from doing normal life activities. I could go more into detail of this, but those of you who suffer from migraines understand. My mother has also, recentely been perscriped topamax, and was hospitalized for kidney stones, one of the side effects of the drug. Problem today with doctors and pharmecutical companies is that they just want to patch a bandaid on your disease/condition so that you come back and they make more money. Ask yourself why would this industry want to fix you so that you dont come back for their "business". Most likely the sole purpose for today's illegalization of medical marijuana. Anyway, the only thing that I can tell you is to do research, and do what's best for you and your body. For me, I have to deal with the pain, and take as little ibuprofen as possible, because of my legal "restrictments". I used to be able to just smoke my cannabis to comfort my pain, stress, etc. And actually for a long time my migraines were occuring amazingly less frequent (like 1 bad one every 4 mo.) and more dull. But, now they have come back to me just like when I was 12. Its rediculous that I get mild to severe migraines more than 4 days a week, and can't smoke a joint to relieve my pain. I feel for you brother. Keep in touch. Peace. B

wow that sort of puts my 6-month bout into perspective. I can't imagine having these headaches for that long.

The depakote was messing with my head, so I quit taking it last thursday, and coming off of it was probably the hardest emotional time I've ever had. depression, despondency, confusion, memory loss, and some of the most vivid and haunting dreams I've ever had. It was like an acid-trip; didn't even seem like I slept. I have an appreciation for people who get depressed or have inexplicable mental disorders. I didn't want anything else but to be normal. I'm finally myself again today (tuesday).

Just came back from an MRI. I don't enjoy taking pills, I try to avoid it as long as I can, but the pain gets so strong, that I don't have control over myself and don't know what else to do but take something (ibuprofen, percocet, which don't even help all that much). Often it comes down to the choice of: do I resist the urge to take something for my ultimate welfare, or do take something so at least I can interact with my kids and not vegetate on the couch because the pain is too much to bear? I can't just be stoic with my kids when I'm their primary caregiver.

I realize that the doctors have their own agendas, and they don't care about me as a person, but If I'm lucky they care about doing their job well. This neurologist sure seems like a bum. I guess you get to the point where you feel like you're on your own.

I got the perfect medicine for you. It's called Imigran. You should ask your doctor about it. My mother got massive migrains daily and she would bitch at all of us all the time lol. But these helped her. She would pop a pill and take a nap and she would be great. I also noticed that she mainly got headaches when we lived in the City. That might be the problem. Imigran is very very expensive. It's like 80$ for 4 pills haha. But if you buy them in Sweden they are alot cheaper, but the plane ticket won't be that cheap hehehehe.

ok so i saw my gp again today. He seemed very sympathetic, saying he knows what it's like and that his son gets wicked migraines. He even seemed to give me more time than normal. i expressed my frustrations at being given pills that so viciously drain my sanity and mood. My wife and I said maybe I should try beta blockers (blood pressure meds, even though i have pretty normal bp). So he gave me some and I'm much more optimistic about it. My head feels better today, but I won't know if it's the new meds or an aberration or my morning cup of coffee. I asked the dr. for perhaps a stronger, longer-lasting opiate, so at least I can give my kids a couple solid pain-free days a week (it's not like I'd call back and ask for more if I'm only taking 2 a week). He physically winced at the suggestion; it's fine I know there are federal laws about that stuff. Just makes me mad that there are junkies out there abusing potentially valuable medicine because they are self-destructive and ruin it for everyone else who just want their life made a little easier. So he gave me some more generic percocet. it's not hard to limit it to 2 days a week if I'm just told that by the guy.

I'm overall much more positive about the headaches. One comfort is knowing that chronic headaches are one of the most common ailments of members of the industrialized world, so i'm not alone, and they won't kill me, even if it feels like they will sometimes. I might not have a choice but to have pain, but I can choose to not suffer and be a whiny bitch about it.

a belated update: I experienced some neck pain along with the headaches and told that to the neurologist about the time that he wanted to in-patient me and run drugs through my body for three days. So instead he referred me to physical therapy. I don't know if it's an absolute diagnosis, but the therapy has helped a bit. The headaches aren't as bad when I know how to hold my head on my shoulders and sit with good posture (posture was something my mom always told me to do, but never how to do it. it starts in the lower back!).

With being a full-time dad a lot of activities call for looking down and stressing the muscles on the back of the neck, resulting in tension headaches. This feels more like a sensible diagnosis than anything else has. I'll type back as to whether it's ultimately effective.

mostly I'm keeping this thread alive hoping that perhaps someone experiencing the same thing might learn something about their own headaches. Also it kinda serves as a headache journal for myself.

The neck pain I had is virtually gone from the P.T. But the headaches themselves are just as constant and severe as before. I still maintain good posture and I do the exercises they gave me, but the headaches are still oppressive. Since I decided that there is probably no genuine cure and I might as well deal with it and be positive, I've felt better in general. I just conclude that pain is part of life; just wish I could do all the things I could do when I was pain-free.

The dr. put me on a beta blocker, Atenolol about 2 months ago, but it hasn't effected the headaches and they just make me sluggish to the point that it's difficult to exercise. I really want to quit taking it so I guess I should ask the dr. Has anyone had any ill effects from abrupt discontinuation of a beta blocker? (I don't have high blood pressure)

I've been going to a chiropractor. I knew I needed one a while ago for lower back discomfort, but the headaches overshadowed it, plus my neurologist discouraged going to a chiropractor. But he's been more productive than any other option. He pointed out problem spots on the xray and they were exactly where some troublesome pain was in the lower core of my head. So after 3 adjustments, the pain in the lower hemisphere of my head has greatly diminished. In the upper hemisphere, severe pain is still abundant.

The neurologist is out of options. The final two suggestions he had were botox injections (wtf?), and opiate medication. I had had 5-325 mg percocets, so he gave me a limited amount of acetomenophin-free 5 mg oxycodone, taken 2 tabs at a time, twice in a day, just twice a week. He then said he'd increase my dosage after a month. So with that, coffee, tea, head-on, essential oils (esp. peppermint), ibuprofen, I'm pretty good at managing and minimizing the pain. It helps to have several different pain relievers, so I'm not taking too much of one thing and so I trick my body into lower tolerance levels for each respective thing.

for the sake of closure, I thought I'd bump this thread because I found a way to relieve myself of headaches any time, without drugs. It's a simple matter of tapping into the pure energy of the universe, or god, or whatever label is chosen. THrough depersonalization accomplished by deep meditation and dismissing anything related to my ego, i.e. what I'm doing, why i'm hurting, what I"m experiencing...I can actually leave my body and sense the pure energy all around me. The process causes the headaches to vanish while I'm doing it, and I can maintain freedom from pain afterward by dismissing why or how I have a headache and just leave my head. pretty cool